Moving your Minecraft world to a new host

Updated 30 October 2026

What to download, how to zip it, and the one mistake that can quietly damage a world when you move it.

Stop the old server, download the world folders (plus mods, plugins and config if you have them), zip them, and upload the zip to the new host. Most importantly, set the new server to the same Minecraft version or newer: an older version damages the world.

1. Stop the old server first

Copying a world while the server is running can catch it halfway through saving. Stop the server, or run /save-all and /save-off, before you download anything.

2. Which folders do I need?

The world. Vanilla keeps everything in one folder, usually called world. Paper and Spigot split it into world, world_nether and world_the_end, and you need all three.
On a modded server: the mods and config folders, and defaultconfigs or kubejs if they are there.
On a plugin server: the plugins folder, which holds each plugin's settings and data too.
Optional: whitelist.json, ops.json, banned-players.json and server-icon.png.

If you are not sure, download the whole server folder. A new host can usually pick out what it needs.

3. Zip it

Put it all into one .zip file. On Windows, select the folders, right-click and choose Compress to ZIP file. On a Mac, right-click and choose Compress.

4. Which Minecraft version was it played on?

This is the one that matters most. A world can be opened in the same Minecraft version or a newer one, but never an older one.

An older version does not refuse a newer world. It quietly regenerates the parts it cannot read and saves over them, so builds can disappear the moment the server starts. Always set the new server to the same version or newer, and keep a copy of the zip until you have checked everything is there.

5. Upload and check

Upload the zip to the new host, start the server, and walk around somewhere you built before you invite everyone back.

On LunaHost

On LunaHost you can attach the zip when you buy the server, or import it later from the Backups tab. The panel works out the software and version from the upload itself, takes a backup before anything changes, and asks you to confirm by typing the server's name before it will open a world in an older Minecraft version.

See the plans